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Spork wrote:Thanks, Slagar. Definitely a helpful description.
Solusar, will you be at Badon?
Thanks again, all. I hope to meet some of you in person.
Graavish wrote:it's not the weight of the weapon that makes for a solid hit, it's how much i don't like you when i'm swinging.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder
Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
Dane wrote:1. Slouching
2. Guard's too high
3. Feet square too often
4. Lay off the high cross
5. Your right hand is on the right side of your body. As such, it should tend to be on the right side of the left hand. Notice how often your hands switch places. If you want your shield to guard your right side while your sword attacks from your left, fight left handed.
6. It doesn't look like Timur's the sort of fighter to abuse you for silly things like jumping high crosses. You'll need to consciously work those out of your routine.
7. More side to side, please. You do a fair job of circling your opponent, but when you start throwing shots, you tend to stay right on his center.
8. When your opponent is legged, he can't maneuver his body or his guard away from you. As such, instead of poking and trying to get him to mess up, step in and force him over or create a bind; both are easy kills.
9. You're straight-arming your hip wrap and not stepping into it at all. Step in and "scoop" the wrap and the shot will better threaten the opponent.
10. It's a punch shield. Try punching with it. The point of a punch shield is not to throw it across your body to fix your mistakes; it's to move it farther away from your body to cut off shot angles and foul up your opponent's attacks. Do that.
11. In addition to being too high, your guard's too chambered. Subtle tip feints are pretty much impossible from that position. Loosen up and present your sword as an obstacle to be overcome.
12. Timur will telegraph everything he does with that guard.I understand its use in SCA where visibility plays a big part in the fight, but that's not us so much. As it is, he's got about three shots he can throw from that position and about zero setup opportunities.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder
Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
I might have a set combo in mind, but I always try to get the first shot to hit if at all possible.
Graavish wrote:it's not the weight of the weapon that makes for a solid hit, it's how much i don't like you when i'm swinging.
Dane wrote:I might have a set combo in mind, but I always try to get the first shot to hit if at all possible.
This notion disappears at the higher levels of fighting.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder
Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
Phlebas wrote:Usually high level second intention is done with the first attack to a low percentage, safer shot, usually a long range shot to the arm. if it doesn't hit or is blocked, your opponent has to take another step or lean to riposte to the torso, which creates the time to make a second shot possible.
If you complete an attack to the torso that your opponent blocks, but are able to hit them before they riposte, your opponent is not very well trained or confused or something else is going on.
Feints are most effective at the critical point as you are transitioning into close range.
From medium range, there's time for multiple feints before a shot hits. From close range, while you're feinting your opponent is probably just hitting you. depending on all the other situational stuff and setup.
Assuming they riposte to the torso, yes. Most people will throw to whatever is closest, however. So if you're just in range to throw to their arm, they will riposte to your arm.
Phlebas wrote:More setup and details. you can, say, cut to the inside of the arm, and then leave your blade in a opposition position so the fastest arm cut is not possible, giving you that time back if they change lines. Or, you can make your continuation with a redoublement (another step closer) so whatever shot they make gets stuffed.
medium and long range feints are totally possible, but they're about setting up the mental situation.
There is a distance and position at which it is physical not possible to parry. The time it takes the blade to travel to the target is less than the time it takes for the visual stimuli to trigger the reaction and the block to arrive. This is where the idea of "action beats reaction" comes from- action time for the attacker being < reflex + action of the defender. Generally, this is true at close range, depending on various setup factors. It is generally NOT true at medium range- the time it takes to step and cut is greater than the time it takes register the attack and move to block. Somewhere along the line between those two positions is a critical point- the point at which it becomes biologically impossible to start a block.
What is usually meant by "high level" is full speed through trained, efficient paths. Any sort of conscious decision process becomes way too slow. You've prepped your brain, your reactions are trained, and once you get in close, you're gonna do what you're gonna do.
Stutters are OODA loop misdirects- those are a different class of action, designed to sabotage the opponent's reaction cycle. Feints can do that, but are more about forcing the opponent to choose. The better the opponent, the less OODA loops tricks work, because instead of getting tied up they recognize the error and immediately act.
As far as your analysis goes, it's solid. The problem is that you're missing a big chunk of what top-tier fighters do: Reading and prediction.
In that sense, even if a block isn't biologically possible to make, I can still make it. I'm creating extra time on the front end.
I've certainly drilled my responses thoroughly enough that I don't have to consider the physical actions individually, but my brain is fully capable of responding to a change of plans or a new threat on the fly and getting my body to react in time. Again, some of that is reading and predicting, but some of it is straight-up responding in time. I see a pattern and respond to it.
It's not strictly true that stutters and similar tricks work better on lower end fighters. Fighting isn't a linear scale in terms of reacting 'right' to different stimuli. A classic example being that it's often hard to use feints or stutters on new fighters because they don't have the 'proper' responses to exploit.
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